Humans Somehow Found A Way To Litter On Mars

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Mars is getting a taste of human life before any person has ever even been there.

NASA reported Wednesday that its Perseverance Mars Rover had spotted “something unexpected” – a piece of litter on the surface of the red planet.

The debris was a piece of a thermal blanket that NASA scientists believe may have fallen off during the rover’s descent. The robot explorer was wrapped in the material to control its temperature.

My team has spotted something unexpected: It’s a piece of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day back in 2021. pic.twitter.com/O4rIaEABLu
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022

That shiny bit of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures. It’s a surprise finding this here: My descent stage crashed about 2 km away. Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here by the wind? pic.twitter.com/uVx3VdYfi8
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022

Here’s part of the team at JPL that wrapped me up in thermal blankets. Think of them as spacecraft dressmakers. They work with sewing machines and other tools to piece together these unique materials.

More on that here: https://t.co/CNkUheYFnQ pic.twitter.com/PcMeow3FyO
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022

Perseverance touched down on Mars in February 2021, marking NASA’s ninth mission to the planet. According to the robot’s Twitter bio, its hobbies are photography, collecting rocks, and off-roading.

So far, only unmanned spacecraft have traveled to Mars, but NASA is hoping to land the first humans on Mars by the 2030s.